Proposal On Gleason Road
Jessica, Shane‘s girlfriend, was dropped off at our Gleason Road apartment at 6:30 by her mother. They were celebrating their three-year anniversary. Jessica followed a path of pink rose petals to the front door. When she opened the door she saw Shane standing in the living room. The kitchen table that I brought when I moved in was sitting in the middle of the room and a candlelight dinner was ready. The ground was covered in those same pink rose petals and there was a curtain dividing the living room and the kitchen.
“Why is there a curtain?” She asked after they had said their hellos.
“You don’t need to worry about that.” Shane lied.
30 minutes before Jessica arrived, her dad, her siblings, their respective spouses, Shane‘s parents and their neighbor Bill entered our apartment. Bill is a successful local musician. I walked them through what was going to happen. When Jessica arrived at 6:30 everyone would hide in my backyard while Shane and Jessica had dinner. When Shane was ready he would send me a text and I would lead everyone into the kitchen through the back door. While we were coming in Shane would sing “Just The Way You Are” by Bruno Mars. When he had finished that song, from behind the curtain I would play keyboard, Bill would play guitar and we would lead everyone in Elvis's “Can't Help Falling in Love”, and at the second chorus Jessica's brother would hit a button, and the curtain would fall revealing all of us. After “Can't Help Falling in Love”, everyone except Bill and I would enter the living room and Shane would sing, “All of Me” by John Legend. During that song, he would propose and after that together we would all sing “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong.
Best laid plans, but that's not exactly how it happened… Cuz it's me… Why would this be anything short of ridiculous and complicated? As I had been explaining the plan to the family, I didn’t actually lower the curtain because it would have been a hassle to hang it back up again so I let it hang by bungee cords when I pushed the button for the Kabuki drop (look it up, it’s pretty cool). I hit the button to demonstrate the dramatic drop and then incorrectly clipped the current back in. There was also a weight at the bottom of the curtain and so that it didn't accidentally rip the cord out of my keyboard when I lowered it, I unplugged my keyboard. At the end of my demonstration, Jessica showed up, and we all quickly and quietly left the apartment through the back door.
Shane texted me at 6:55 and I led everyone to the back door. Now I had a lawn chair propping the screen door open so that we could avoid as much noise as possible. I got to the screen door, held it open, and tried to move the lawn chair so people could get in; but I accidentally dropped it causing a loud crash. Everyone went in single file and by the time I got in “Just The Way You Are” was almost over. It was at this point that I realized that I had not plugged my keyboard back in. I stealthily snuck around the curtain, and miraculously managed to get it plugged in without Jessica noticing me.
When we were ready, Bill and I started playing and singing, and when the time came, Jessica's brother hit the button to drop the curtain. Unfortunately, because I had not clipped it incorrectly it didn't drop, but Jessica's dad pulled it down only a few seconds later. As Shane was singing “All of Me” I started to notice his voice was cracking. It confused me at first because he wasn't having this problem when we practiced. But then I realized, he was crying. By the time the ring was out and he was down on one knee, Shane was full-on ugly crying.
I bring this up not to call him out, but I think it's a testament to how much Shane loves Jessica. Shane and I had been planning this since the night I moved in a month ago and after all that practicing, when it came down to the moment that he proposed, he was so full of emotion that he lost control. And I think that's beautiful!
Congratulations Shane and Jessica!
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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